“As anyone who has ever been in New York on St Patrick’s Day will agree, there’s something Irish about everyone.” It’s easy to derive some amusement from Clive Barnes’s programme notes for the tenth anniversary production of Riverdance. So easy, in fact, that I’m a little disappointed when, after the show, I catch myself doing just that. In mitigation, the previous two hours have been spent watching random fragments of Celtic imagery flash up on an ever-shifting backdrop; a druidy henge thing here; some Oirish landscapes broken up by a twinkling stream there.

I’ve seen a trio of tippy-tapping young fellas engage in camp dance-offs with Brooklyn street kids — all the better to work in the subtext that the moonwalk would be but a bashful shuffle without its Irish ancestral origins.

If you look further back in this topic, our resident Irish dance teacher, JM, talked about the crippling cost of technicolor dresses and wigs for Irish dance competitions, apparently in an attempt to recapture "traditional" appearance. JM also described her school policy in trying to buck the trend with simple dresses and no wigs.

Sad to say these Guardian images, from the recent world championship, show ultra garish dresses and ridiculous wigs: such a shame to ruin the aesthetics of a dynamic and beautiful dance style. Not to mention the fact that the cost will be a barrier to many.

The Irish dance masters refined and codified indigenous Irish dance traditions. Rules emerged about proper upper body, arm, and foot placement. Also, dancers were instructed to dance a step twice -first with the right foot then with the left. Old-style step dancers dance with arms loosely at their sides.Try this for Sound Effects

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